Dark Past - Third Revision

~ Year 2367 ~

Both Captain Rufus and Xylis encounters an opened doorway, which has illumination. They decides to investigate. Upon entering, the room, they spotted Shana resting her back on her wall, with blood bleeding from the Borg implants. Rufus immediately rushes towards his wife.

"Shana!" Rufus checks her pulse. "Oi, are you alright?"

Xylis seeing the old-style twenty-third century hypospray on the floor with an ejected cartridge, next to Shana, and looks at the centre counter. There are packs of hypospray, including the cartridge. She picks up and inspects it.

"She was injected with adrenaline," Xylis said.

Rufus looking around Shana, spots the hypospray and the ejected cartridge. He unloads the hypospray and pulls the cartridge out and passes both of the cartridges to Xylis.

"What are these?"

Xylis picks them and tries to match it with the drugs on the counter.

"The ejected is adrenaline, and loaded, pain killer."

Rufus searches the room, the cabinets for a drug to revive her. He manage to find one and loads it into the hypospray and injects it on his wife.

"Careful," Rufus whispered to his wife, upon regaining consciousness.
"R--Ru--Rufus..."

The adrenaline is still within her drug, that she wanted to stand up. Rufus, seeing that she is picking herself up, holds her.

"Hang on, you are still bleeding."
"Mo--mother," Shana muttered.

Rufus clicks his combadge, "Rufus to Ambassador."

There was no response.

"Ambassador do you read?"

Again, no response.

"We could be too deep and since the carrier is wider than the distress..."
"We can't contact anyone."
Shana coughs some blood, "Stop--stop my mother."
Rufus removes his top uniform and puts it on his wife, "Stay here, until all of it is resolved."

Both of them exits the drug lab, and Xylis is struck by the same electrical shock. The shock nearly incapacitates her.

"Xylis!" Rufus managed to hold onto her. "Are you alright?"

Xylis tries to speak, however, she couldn't speak at all. She deduces that the shock impaired her speech. She points at her throat, and gives an 'X' sign using her hands.

"No speech?"

Xylis nods. Fearing that she might collapse, Rufus carries her. This surprises her, however, she doesn't want to collapse and hit her head on the wall or the floor. She embraces him.

"You're slightly lighter than my wife--not much."

She squints her eyes, and glares at him, wondering if he complimented or insulted her weight.

"It was a compliment," Rufus tries not to make her uncomfortable.

As they continue their way, the encountered a 'dead' end, however, the doorway in front of them appears to be open forcefully. Since she didn't collapse at all, he lowers her gently. Xylis nods as a way to thank him. Both of them draws their phaser pistol before entering it.

Upon entering the doorway, they find the room to be very bloody, the wall, the floor, and the ceiling, as though something exploded inside the broken cylindrical tanks--the glasses are shattered on the floor.

Xylis froze and her eyes widen like a saucer. She vaguely remembers entering this room, though, couldn't remember why she was there or what happened afterwards.

"Xylis?" Rufus turns to Xylis and checks on her. "Xylis are you alright?"

The adrenaline rush, of remembering a repressed memory, her speech returns.

"No---I've been here before. I--I'm afraid."
"Let's continue!" Rufus holds her arms. "I'll be right next to you."

Looking on the other side of the room, it appears that another doorway is forcefully opened. They can't see anything further, it's pitch black. Both shines their palm beacons ahead, just pitch black, only the floor is barely visible. Xylis squeezes Rufus' arm.

"So you have brought her back here, once at last!" Elizabeth exclaimed, though it echoed, as they steps inside the pitched black room.

There's a loud clamping noise. The room begins to illuminate pinkish-red. It reveals to be a large walkway, and underneath the walkway, are multiple large cylinderical tanks, similar to the previous room, however, they have displays on top of them. There's a label too, which spells out: 'ARTIFICIAL WOMB'.

"Come my daughter! Come!"

Elizabeth is on the far side of the room, on top of what appears to be a control or observation room from the second floor.

"Me? Daughter of Syree?"
"Yes! You were also created from this very room."
"But---"
"Your doctors will not find an organic circuitry embedded to scramble your DNA," Elizabeth abruptly cuts her. "If you don't believe me, find one of the artifical wombs, with a taller height."

They search the artificial wombs below, and one of them had a taller height, it appears to have been opened for a very long time. Elizabeth is telling the truth.

"The rest are your failed sisters."
"What do you want?" Rufus demanded. "Get to the point!"

Elizabeth holds up a dark red vile.

"A third child, with nano-technology."

Both captains suspect that the vile contains Shana's Borg infected blood. Xylis is startled as there's someone plant one of their palms on her shoulder. Xylis turns and it's Shana.

"Don't---don't give her."

Shana looks to her right, the artificial wombs. She wonders if her mother is a monster.

"If she wants a genetically engineered child, I'll take responsi---"

Shana coughs out blood, and the pain throughout her entire body, brings her to her knees. Xylis helps to comfort her. She has difficulty believing that Shana is her twin sister, and Elizabeth is her biological mother.

"Eve--even if you are my twin sister, I'm the oldest" Shana coughs, and interrupted Xylis' thoughts. "I wouldn't allow my younger twin to bear the burden of what I had."
"Shana."

Shana blacks out, the last thing she sees is Xylis' face.